


Can't Buy Me Love

by kamja



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cute, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 05:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamja/pseuds/kamja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamada joins a date auction, while Yuto looks on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Buy Me Love

“I joined the date auction.”

Yuto stopped eating his lunch and looked at Ryosuke. “What? Why?”

Ryosuke shrugged. “I don’t have any money to bid with, but I was asked to help out...”

Some of the clubs at their university had banded together to organize a charity date auction for next week’s holiday ball. No one knew who came up with the idea, but the girls from the choir took up the cause and generated a lot of attention since many of them were so pretty. Then the cute guys from the baseball team joined up, and any opposition from the female students about the whole thing being sexist was silenced. The proceeds were going to the local children’s hospital.

Yuto frowned a little bit. “What if some weirdo ends up making the winning bid?” This was the reason why he resisted any requests to sign up. He overheard some people discussing it after class one day. “They talked about you too, y’know.”

“It’s just a dance, after all.”

The other boy didn’t relent. “But what if you drink too much and forget what’s happening?”

“I’ll have a terrible hangover?”

Yuto stared and crumpled up his bread wrapper. The light cellophane noise cut through the chatter in the cafeteria. “Yes.”

Ryosuke really wanted to smile, but forced himself to hold it in. He really didn’t see what was the big deal. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

 

When Ryosuke arrived at on campus the next morning, the news of his participation had obviously spread. He started noticing more girls, and even some guys, looking at him. _Probably preparing their bids._ It was going to be a silent auction lasting three days. The names and pictures of the participants were posted on the bulletin board out on the west hallway by the history department office. Bidders wrote down an amount on a slip of paper and placed it in the envelope taped underneath each name. The top bids were to be updated once after the lunch hour and before classes by the Astronomy Club.

Today was the first day.

By late afternoon, the top bid under Ryosuke’s name was $50. It was pretty high, though some of the very popular people on campus had even more. 

“There’s a bidding war going on,” the secretary of the Astronomy Club said as he updated the bids at lunch on the next day.

“For who?” Ryosuke asked as he leaned on the wall and watched. He and Chinen were in the same math class.

“For you.”

The was a pause before Ryosuke spoke again. “Can you tell me --”

“Nope,” Chinen finished pinning the results on the board. “It’s anonymous for a reason. Let’s go, we’ll be late.”

 

“Will you bid on me?”

“Aren’t you going for over $100 now?” Yuto looked thoughtful as he copied some notes.

“I know, I know.” Ryosuke buried his head in his arms as he slumped on the cafe table. “Chinen said it was a bidding war. What if it’s between two strange, desperate people who are pawning off everything they own to raise the money...”

“Or they could be selling essays,” Yuto added with a curt nod of his head to one side. He kept scribbling in his notebook.

“Or drugs,” Ryosuke added, his face still buried in the sleeves of his hoodie..

Yuto stopped writing and looked at the back of his friend’s head. His hand twitched, as if he wanted to reach out and touch a lock of hair that was going the wrong way, but Yuto didn’t make a move. Instead, he sighed and started stuffing his things into his bag.

“I’m gonna take off now. Don’t worry. It’s just a dance.”

Without looking up, Ryosuke put up a hand to wave goodbye.

 

The bids eventually dropped off by the end of the second day, and on the third day, they didn’t move a bit. Ryosuke had just gotten too expensive. Around that time, there was a rumor going around that a bunch of sorority girls had pooled their money to bid on him. Then, there was another rumor that Kyoko, monstrous and spoiled Kyoko, was the winning bidder. She winked at him in the science building hallway, and Ryosuke smiled back just because she was three inches taller than him and had six years of muscles from playing sports to back up that height.

When Ryosuke ran into Chinen after class, he wondered if he was better off asking or if he should cherish a last night of blissful ignorance.

“The auction went well, didn’t it?” he asked neutrally.

“Yeah, a lot busier than expected, but that’s good.”

“Thats...good.”

“By the way, your winning bidder said, ‘See you at school tomorrow’.” Chinen shuffled through some papers in his arms. “Thanks a lot, Yamada-kun. You got some really nice bids in there. I’m sure the local hospital will put that money to good use.”

Ryosuke only nodded. He really didn’t have the heart to ask, in the end. Then he tried to keep his mind blank and headed home.

The next morning, he woke up and got dressed extra slowly. It was just a dance, after all. It was for a good cause. Isn’t that what he told Yuto back then? It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. All he had to do was stay sober, right?

Yuto, who lived three streets further down the way, was already waiting outside his door. They often walked to their morning class together, though Ryosuke was often the one who was waiting for Yuto to come running up the street at full blast.

“Hey, you’re a slowpoke this morning,” he said by way of greeting as Ryosuke closed his front gate with a creak.

“Oh, sorry.”

They walked a little along in silence. Then Yuto suddenly held something out.

“It couldn’t be because of this, could it?”

Ryosuke blinked. There were two tickets to the holiday ball in Yuto’s hand. Chinen’s handwriting indicated that they were for Ryosuke’s auction. He stopped in his tracks.

“ _You’re_ my winning bidder? I thought you weren’t into this whole thing.”

Yuto shrugged and kept walking, forcing Ryosuke to move as well. “Yeah, I changed my mind about it.”

Then he paused and shook his head. “Well...it was more like, I couldn’t stand the thought of someone else buying _you_.”

He turned away a little too quickly and started walking again at a slightly faster pace. Ryosuke stared at the tickets some more and then grinned at Yuto’s back.

“Thanks, Yuto.”

“You totally owe me now.” Yuto waved his hand.

“If I recall, _you’re_ the one who still owes me $50.”

“Uh, did you _see_ your winning bid? You know how many essays I sold to earn enough?”

Then Ryosuke started running. “Crap, if we don’t hurry, we’ll be late!”

“Oi, you can’t change the topic that easily!”

 

End!


End file.
